Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is that three times a week is a habit,
Speaker 1: but sometimes remembering to do things three times a week
Speaker 1: can be hard if you have a good weekly planning system,
Speaker 1: though it doesn't have to be. It can be as
Speaker 1: easy as checking things awful list. Longtime listeners have probably
Speaker 1: heard me say three times a week is a habit.
Speaker 1: I maintain that anything that happens three times a week
Speaker 1: is frequent enough in our lives to be part of
Speaker 1: our identities. Things don't have to happen at the same
Speaker 1: time every day in order to count in our lives.
Speaker 1: It is also a lot more doable to get to
Speaker 1: three times a week than aiming for days. While some
Speaker 1: things like brushing your teeth probably should happen at least
Speaker 1: once a day, that's not true for a lot of
Speaker 1: other things. If you eat family meals together three times
Speaker 1: a week, you are a family that eats together regularly.
Speaker 1: If you exercise three times a week, you are someone
Speaker 1: who exercises regularly. If you practice Spanish three times a week,
Speaker 1: you will probably make progress. Now, of course, the trouble
Speaker 1: with aiming for three times a week is that sometimes
Speaker 1: this is hard to remember. When we do things daily,
Speaker 1: they become part of our routines, though even here there
Speaker 1: is a lot of gray area. People have context specific routines.
Speaker 1: People often think of themselves as doing something daily if
Speaker 1: they do it every day at work or in the
Speaker 1: course of getting to or from work, But most people
Speaker 1: don't work seven days a week. This' daily habit is
Speaker 1: really five times per week, and yet people remember it.
Speaker 1: You don't forget how to commute on Monday even though
Speaker 1: you haven't done it Saturday or Sunday. I know there's
Speaker 1: the saying don't miss twice, but many people's lives don't
Speaker 1: look the same seven days a week. They miss twice
Speaker 1: on weekends. With all sorts of routines, there is a
Speaker 1: lot of variability here. Three times a week is frequent,
Speaker 1: but also accounts for that reality. Be that as it may.
Speaker 1: How can you remember to do something three times a week?
Speaker 1: I have been thinking of this recently with trying to
Speaker 1: do strength training three times a week and getting my
Speaker 1: kids to practice their musical instruments three times a week.
Speaker 1: With strength, I have one session built in with my trainer,
Speaker 1: but the others I need to do on my own
Speaker 1: with instruments. I'd love to have a setup where the
Speaker 1: kids just remember and do it without reminding, but so
Speaker 1: far this hasn't happened. So what I do when I
Speaker 1: make my weekly plan on Fridays, creating my priority list
Speaker 1: for the next week is I simply put the thing
Speaker 1: I wish to do and then write one two three
Speaker 1: on my planner page as in Strength one two three
Speaker 1: and then kid instruments one two three. Then, since I
Speaker 1: aim to have everything crossed off my planner page by
Speaker 1: the end of the week, and my planner stays open
Speaker 1: on my desk, I am reminded to do these things
Speaker 1: every time I see the page over the course of
Speaker 1: the week. When I have got some time, I can
Speaker 1: cross one of the things off going into the evening.
Speaker 1: If I see I only have one kid instrument number
Speaker 1: crossed off, it reminds me to remind the kids to
Speaker 1: do it. Then when they do, us the two off.
Speaker 1: Since I'm aiming for three times a week, it's impossible
Speaker 1: to get more than three times behind, and it works
Speaker 1: to do whatever it is Friday, Saturday and Sunday if
Speaker 1: that is necessary, that is still three times a week. Now.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't recommend listing too many habits on the planner page,
Speaker 1: as it will get unwieldy. But if something is truly
Speaker 1: a habit, you probably don't have to list it. I
Speaker 1: don't put brushing my teeth on my planner, but I
Speaker 1: do think it is helpful for keeping me accountable. And
Speaker 1: since I have started putting things like strength one two
Speaker 1: three on my planner and kid instruments one two three,
Speaker 1: I've been better about making these things happen. If you
Speaker 1: have a weekly planning system, then this might work for you.
Speaker 1: Two Now, obviously, for some people it works better to
Speaker 1: calendar the three times, but this system that I use
Speaker 1: has some flexibility and might work for the little things
Speaker 1: that don't take too much time and could fit around
Speaker 1: other things. You just have to remember to make them happen.
Speaker 1: This system of putting one, two three on the planner
Speaker 1: page solves that problem in the meantime. This is Laura.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our time. Thanks for listening to before Breakfast. If you've
Speaker 1: got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at
Speaker 1: Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a
Speaker 1: production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.